WEEKEND COOK.

A little beer can go a long way

April 25, 2004|By Abby Mandel, (copyright) 2004, Abby Mandel.

Beer is now a sophisticated beverage, with all the new specialty varieties as well as the increasing number of boutique beers from micro-breweries. Since these beers are more varied and exotic, offering a complex taste experience with many nuances of flavor, it only stands to reason that they have come to enrich and enhance our cooking. Beer is a great liquid for poaching fish. It also adds extra lightness to batters for deep frying. A Belgian beef stew, called carbonnade a la flamande, is famous for its beer sauce. Here, I've included recipes for shrimp in beer, biscuits with beer and tarragon, and a basic beer batter recipe. Beer makes the shrimp piquant and sweet, enhancing it so much that I wonder why shrimp is not cooked in beer more often.

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place rack in center of oven. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, tarragon and salt in medium-size mixing bowl. Work butter into dry ingredients with pastry blender until it resembles coarse meal; set aside.

2. Combine mustard and beer in small dish. Add to mixture in bowl. Combine with fork just until ingredients clump together. (Or alternatively, prepare in food processor; use metal blade to cut butter into flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, tarragon and salt. Combine beer and mustard. Evenly drizzle on top of flour. Process just until clumps of dough are formed.)